Direct approach best for bad news in the office

Published 5:24 pm, Friday, October 4, 2013

How do you tell employees that they're going from unlimited sick leave to three days a year? How about that they're next on the layoff list?

The key is to be direct and honest and to not sugarcoat the news, said Kari Fluegel, owner of 104 Communications, which focuses on employee communications.

The up-front approach drives employee engagement, productivity and retention, said Fluegel, who spoke this week during an event hosted by the Public Relations Society of America.

Fluegel launched her own consulting company after working in employee communications for United Space Alliance. Lessons from that experience - such as telling employees two months in advance they're going to lose their jobs even though the company might not have been required to do so under federal law - helped create an environment of trust.

Employees were able to stay engaged and focused because they knew what was coming, she said. The advance notification created hard feelings among competitors who found themselves fending off complaints from their own employees about why they weren't getting a similar tip-off.

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Many times, Fluegel found herself wrestling with news that wasn't easy to deliver, such as the company's decision to eliminate its pension plan and limiting sick leave to three days a year.

"Obviously, that didn't go over well," she said. One bout of flu and there goes your entire annual allotment of sick days.

Or the seemingly never-ending string of layoffs - she counted nine during her tenure - that pared the workforce to 2,000 employees, from 10,000, by the time she left United Space Alliance a year ago.

Hear it from firm 1st

But it was better hearing the news first from company officials instead of media reports, she said.

The company, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, downsized after the end of the space-shuttle program and is not pursuing any new contracts, said Eileen Walsh, communication and public relations specialist. Today, it has about 700 employees.

In her presentation, Fluegel pointed to the comments made by employees about extensive job losses following Atlantis, the nation's final shuttle trip.

"We knew it was coming," said one, according to a Florida newspaper account. And that, said Fluegel, is a measure that the company's communication program was a success.

One key ingredient is getting senior management on board, said Fluegel.

Misinformation in gaps

At United Space Alliance, the executive at the top of the organizational chart made it clear to managers that it was their responsibility to pass along critical information and that they would be held accountable. The company also looked for communications skills when it hired managers.

When employees get only part of the story, she said, they are left to fill in the gaps with information that may or may not be true.

The company tried to play straight with the federal law that requires a 60-day notice to employees who will lose their jobs in a mass layoff. Many companies give notice to all their employees and then shortly before the 60-day window is up, single out individuals that it wants to stay, said Fluegel.

"It's a little trick," she said. But when everyone is included in the notice, individual employees don't know until the end whether they're on the stay or go list.

The company also opted to start an electronic employee forum that Fluegel referred to as "one of the boldest things" the company ever did. "It shocked the socks off me," Fluegel said.

It got some traffic, especially from the "negative Nellies." But many employees weren't posting comments and company officials figured it was because many employees were more worried about their co-workers' reactions rather than management fears.

So three top company officers decided to let employees make anonymous comments and the floodgates opened. It became a way to answer questions, Fluegel said.

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